Auburn Tigers
Encyclopedia
Auburn Tigers is the name given to Auburn University
athletic teams. The University is a member of the Southeastern Conference
and competes in NCAA
Division I, fielding 19 varsity teams in 13 sports:
Auburn has also won national championships in football in 1957
and 2010
.
in 1985, and Cam Newton
in 2010 have won the Heisman Trophy
. The Trophy's namesake, John Heisman, coached at Auburn from 1895 until 1899. Auburn is the only school that Heisman coached at (among others, Georgia Tech
and Clemson
) that has produced a Heisman Trophy winner. Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium
has a capacity of 87,451 ranking as the tenth-largest on-campus stadium in the NCAA as of January 2011. Auburn played the first football game in the Deep South
in 1892 against the University of Georgia
at Piedmont Park
in Atlanta, Georgia
. The Tigers' first bowl appearance was in 1937 in the sixth Bacardi Bowl
played in Havana
, Cuba
. AU Football has won eleven conference championships (7 SEC), has had twelve undefeated seasons, and since the division of the conference in 1992, four western division championships (1997, 2000, 2004, 2010) and four trips to the SEC Championship game (1997, 2000, 2004, and 2010). Auburn plays archrival Alabama
each year in a game known as the Iron Bowl
. The Iron bowl, no matter the rankings of the teams is always one of the biggest games of the year. It grants one team bragging rights and shown in "Roll Tide/War Eagle" the 30 for 30 documentary done by ESPN, the game means more than just bragging rights. Auburn won the most recent meeting, on November 26, 2010, by a score of 28-27. In the overall series with Alabama, Auburn trails Alabama 40-34-1, despite having won 7 of the last 10 meetings. Of the 12 SEC member universities, Auburn currently ranks 6th in the number of SEC football championships, behind Alabama [22], Tennessee [13], Georgia [12], LSU [10], and Florida [total of 8, with 1 vacated in 1984].
Auburn completed the 2004 football season with an unblemished 13–0 record winning the SEC
championship, their first conference title since 1989 and their first outright title since 1987. However, this achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the Tigers being left out of the BCS
championship game in deference to two other undefeated, higher ranked teams, USC
and Oklahoma. The 2004 team was led by quarterback Jason Campbell
(Washington Redskins
), running backs Carnell Williams
(Tampa Bay Buccaneers
) and Ronnie Brown
(Miami Dolphins
), and cornerback Carlos Rogers
(Washington Redskins
).
Auburn completed the 2010 football season with a perfect record of 13-0 winning the SEC
championship when they defeated the University of South Carolina 56-17 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta Georgia, which set an SEC Championship Game record for most points scored and largest margin of victory. The Tigers went on to defeat the Oregon Ducks
22 to 19 in their first appearance in the BCS National Championship game
on January 10, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. The 2010 team was led by quarterback Cam Newton
, who became the Heisman trophy winner of 2010.
and diving
program became a virtual dynasty in the SEC and the NCAA winning five consecutive NCAA men's championships from 2003 through 2007 and women's championships in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Auburn men have won the SEC Championship 14 out of the last 15 years and also won national championships in 1997, 1999, and 2009. The Auburn men won their 13th consecutive SEC Title in 2008, while the Auburn women took home their fifth SEC Championship in the last six years. The Auburn men's 44 consecutive, five year dual meet win record came to an end on January 11, 2007 when they lost to Texas 130-113 exactly five years to the date of their last loss in 2001, also to Texas.
Auburn swimmers have represented the U.S. and several other countries in recent Olympics
. Auburn's most famous swimmer is Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines
, winner of three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics
. Auburn's most successful female Olympic swimmer is Kirsty Coventry
(swimming for her home country of Zimbabwe
) who won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics
in Athens
.
Marsh left Auburn after the 2007 season to become the Head Elite Coach and CEO of the United States Olympic Committee Center of Excellence in Charlotte, North Carolina
and was succeeded by former Auburn head coach Richard Quick
who led Stanford
and Texas to 12 NCAA titles in two decades of coaching between 1984 and 2005.
team has enjoyed off-and-on success over the years. Its best known alumnus
is Charles Barkley
.
Other NBA players from Auburn are Chuck Person
, Wesley Person
, Chris Porter, Marquis Daniels
, Moochie Norris
, and Pat Burke
.
team has been consistently competitive both nationally and within the SEC. Despite playing in the same conference as perennial powerhouse Tennessee
and other competitive programs such as LSU
, Georgia
, and Vanderbilt
, Auburn has won four regular season SEC championships and four SEC Tournament championships. AU has made sixteen appearances in the NCAA women's basketball tournament and only once, in the Tigers first appearance in 1982, have the Tigers lost in the first round. Auburn played in three consecutive National Championship games from 1988–1990 and won the Women's NIT
in 2003. When Coach Joe Ciampi announced his retirement after twenty-five years at the end of the 2003–2004 season, the resulting search snared the highly experienced, former Purdue
and US National and Olympic team head coach, Nell Fortner
. Standout former Auburn players include: Ruthie Bolton
, Vickie Orr, Carolyn Jones, Chantel Tremitiere and Monique Morehouse.
Since 1996, the team has been headed by Coach Kim Evans, a 1981 alumna, who has turned the program into one of the most competitive in the nation. Coach Evans has helped develop All-Americans, SEC Players of the Year as well as three SEC Freshman of the Year. She has led the Tigers to eight-straight NCAA appearances. She is by far the winningest Coach in Auburn Golf History, having over 1100 wins and winning six of Auburn's seven total SEC Titles. Evans was named National Coach of the Year in 2003 and has coached 8 individual All-Americans while at Auburn.
The 2006 Auburn soccer season saw the Tigers playing only five seniors and 13 freshmen who saw significant playing time. Despite the youth, Auburn went on to an 11-5-3 including a 5-3-3 mark in the SEC to retake the SEC Western division title. The Season ended on a 3-1 loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to California in Tallahassee, Florida.
The 2011 Auburn soccer team defeated Florida, 3-2 to win the SEC Tournament on 11/6/11.
sport five years later. The team has been led by Greg Williams since its debut. In 2004, the team won its first championship at the Southern Equestrian Championships, which started in 2003. In 2006, the team won its first Varsity Equestrian National Championship, capturing Auburn's first national title outside of football and swimming and diving. The team earned its first Hunt Seat national title in 2008, while the Tigers finished third in the overall standings. The team won a second national championship in 2011.
Although equestrian is not yet sanctioned by the NCAA, Auburn competes with 19 other Division I schools, including SEC
foes Georgia
and South Carolina
. The NCAA classified equestrian as an emerging sport in 1998. 40 Division I and Division II schools are required for the sport to be recognized by the NCAA. Currently, there are 23 programs, and more are expected to be added each year.
, for whom the Hutsell-Rosen Track
was in part named in 2006.
. The tradition began in the 1960s when groups of kids would walk up the street to greet the team and get autographs. During the tenure of coach Doug Barfield, the coach urged fans to come out and support the team, and thousands did. Auburn is the first known school to conduct an organized procession of players into the stadium. Today the team, led by the coaches, walks down the hill and into the stadium surrounded by fans who pat them on the back and shake their hands as they walk. The largest Tiger Walk occurred on December 2, 1989, before the first ever home football game against rival Alabama
—the Iron Bowl
. On that day, an estimated 20,000 fans packed the one block section of road leading to the stadium. According to former athletic director David Housel, Tiger Walk has become "the most copied tradition in all of college football." As it grew in popularity, the Tiger Walk has become a fixture for road games. Fans will gather at visiting stadiums and cheer the team on from the buses into the stadium.
The intersection of Magnolia Avenue and College street http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=k&layer=c&cbll=32.606364,-85.481842&panoid=uDjTA45K-1BXHr40pA6wfg&cbp=12,307.21,,0,-6.72&ll=32.605453,-85.480993&spn=0.004718,0.006899&z=17 in Auburn, which marks the transition from downtown Auburn to the university campus, is known as Toomer's Corner. It is named for businessman and State Senator Sheldon Toomer who founded the Bank of Auburn on the corner of Magnolia Avenue and College street in 1907. Toomer's Drugs is a small business on the corner that has been an Auburn landmark for over 130 years.
can usually be found hanging from the trees. Also known as "rolling the corner", this tradition is thought to have originated in the 1950s to celebrate away victories; however, in recent years it has become a way to celebrate anything good that happens concerning Auburn. On January 10, 2011 when Auburn Football won the BCS National Championship game, a celebration was held at the corner which involved the traditional papering.
, a town 30 minutes from Auburn, called into Paul Finebaum
's sports talk radio show. "Al" admitted to poisoning the trees with a pesticide called Spike 80DF (Tebuthiuron)
the weekend following the 2010 Iron Bowl
, an away game the Tigers played on Friday, November 26, 2010 in Tuscaloosa; the Tigers came back from a 24-0 second-quarter deficit to win 28-27. He said he did this in retaliation for photos that he claimed to have seen in the Birmingham News that depicted Auburn fans rolling Toomer's Corner after announcement of former University of Alabama head-coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's
death in 1983 as well as pictures of an Auburn #2 (number of 2010 Auburn quarterback Cam Newton
) Under Armour
t-shirt taped to Bryant's statue earlier in the 2010 season. He ended his call by saying, "Roll damn Tide!" An exhaustive search of newspapers found no evidence of Toomer's being rolled upon Bryant's death.
The caller's claims prompted Auburn to take soil samples. On February 16, 2011, Auburn officials announced that the 130-year-old live oak trees at Toomer's Corner had been poisoned with a large quantity of Spike 80DF, an herbicide governed by Alabama state agricultural laws and the Environmental Protection Agency; Spike 80DF is not used by Auburn University. Tests of soil samples showed the lowest levels of Spike 80DF to be 0.78ppm, which experts say is enough to be a "very lethal dose." The highest levels of concentration were measured to be 51ppm. Gary Keever, an Auburn University professor of horticulture and a member of Auburn's Tree Preservation Committee has said "[Spike 80DF] is extremely active and persistent [and] it's very likely to be in the soil for 3 to 5 years."
The school and city police both launched investigations into the matter. Finebaum later reported that Federal authorities are also involved and are worried the poison could be in the groundwater supply. Both Auburn University President Jay Gogue
and University of Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore
have condemned this act.
Police traced the call to the home of Harvey Updyke Jr. of Dadeville. Updyke, a retired Texas state trooper
, was taken into custody at 1:26 am CST on February 17, 2011 and charged with one count of criminal mischief, a class C felony in Alabama. He is being held on a $50,000 bond. If convicted, Updyke faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
. According to the story, in the stands that day was an old Civil War soldier with an eagle that he had found injured on a battlefield and kept as a pet. The eagle broke free and began to soar over the field, and Auburn began to march toward the Georgia end zone. The crowd began to chant "War Eagle" as the eagle soared. After Auburn won the game, the eagle crashed to the field and died, but according to the legend, his spirit lives on every time an Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry also functions as a greeting for those associated with the University. For many years, a live golden eagle
has embodied the spirit of this tradition. The eagle was once housed on campus in The Eagle's Cage, but the cage was taken down and the eagle moved to a nearby raptor center.
One story centers around a response to Alabama fans after a 1894 football match. Following a colossal victory against the tigers, the Alabama fans began cheering "roll tide." Flustered, ignorant, and confused, the Auburn fans blurted the first two words that came to mind- "war" and "eagle." This nonsensical chant quickly became the laughing stock of the southeast. According to legend, the spirits of dead eagles come to life for a night of mischief every time an Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry also functions as an insult to eagle conservation activists.
Yet another legend is centered around the city of Auburn's agricultural roots. According to folk lore, before Auburn became the bustling metropolis that it is today, there was an old farmer that lived just outside the city limits. One day, after having his rabbit herds thinned by a pack of golden eagles, the farmer vowed war against those roving raptors, but it just so happened that the Auburn football team was at that time playing the Georgia Bulldogs. For years after its initial founding, the Auburn football team struggled to attract even the most mediocre of crowds. On that fateful day, the Auburn players, not being sure exactly what their team mascot was, looked across the plains and spied the farmer raving about "war on the eagles". Being strengthened by the farmer's strange ranting, the football players also began yelling "war on eagles" which eventually became shortened to "war eagle". Auburn lost that match 27-0.
, sneaked out of their dorms the night before the football game between Auburn and Tech and greased the railroad tracks. According to the story, the train carrying the Georgia Tech team slid through town and didn't stop until it was halfway to the neighboring town of Loachapoka, Alabama
, The Georgia Tech team was forced to walk the five miles back to Auburn and, not surprisingly, were rather weary at the end of their journey. This likely contributed to their 45–0 loss. While the railroad long ago ceased to be the way teams traveled to Auburn and students never greased the tracks again, the tradition continues in the form of a parade through downtown Auburn. Students parade through the streets in their pajamas and organizations build floats. This tradition was renewed in 2005 with Georgia Tech returning to Auburn's schedule after nearly two decades of absence.
and the University of Georgia
. The stretch of games against these two schools is known traditionally as Amen Corner
. Alabama is the most heated rival, and this rivalry is considered to be one of the most intense in the country. Competitions between the schools are known as the Iron Bowl
. Alabama holds the all-time edge with a record of 40 wins, 34 losses and 1 tie.
Georgia
and Auburn compete in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry
, dating back to 1892. The game was played in Piedmont Park
in Atlanta, Georgia
. The series is extremely close, with Auburn holding a 54-52-8 record. It is one of the longest running and most played series in the NCAA.
Auburn also has a very competitive football rivalry with the LSU Tigers
, commonly referred to as the Tiger Bowl. The two share more than just a nickname, as they have both enjoyed success in the SEC's Western Division. Auburn or LSU has won at least a share of the SEC Western Division championship for eight of the last eleven years, and appeared in the SEC Championship game in seven of those years. Auburn won it outright in 2000, 2004, and 2010, LSU won it outright in 2007, and LSU won tiebreakers against Auburn in 2001 and 2005, and against Ole Miss in 2003. The only four times Auburn or LSU did not go to Atlanta in the last eleven years was 2002 when Arkansas won the three-way tie breaker with the two Tiger teams, in 2006 when Arkansas made it to Atlanta with a win over Auburn, and 2008 and 2009 when Alabama won the division.
Some of Auburn's former rivals included the Florida Gators
, the Tennessee Volunteers
and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
, each of which was mitigated (or, in the case of Georgia Tech, ended) with the SEC expansion and division restructuring, as well as past long series with the Clemson Tigers
and the Florida State Seminoles
.
While basketball is a lesser sport at Auburn, (compared to football) the Iron Bowl of Basketball
is fierce as well and is most well known for the halftime ceremony in which the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Award is awarded to the school that won the football matchup earlier that academic year.
Auburn's swimming and diving team has a fierce rivalry with Texas, as the two have combined for 17 NCAA National Titles since 1981 (9 for Texas, 8 for Auburn) and between 1999 and 2007 won every national title awarded. The two regularly face off in a meet during the regular season, Auburn's men own an 12-9 record over the Longhorns. The women just recently began an annual series, with the Tigers winning the series so far 3-1. Texas was the only team to beat the Auburn men between 2001 and 2007.
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
athletic teams. The University is a member of the Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
and competes in NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division I, fielding 19 varsity teams in 13 sports:
|
|
National championships
Auburn has won NCAA Division I championships in the following events:- Men's sports (9):
- Swimming & DivingNCAA Men's Swimming and Diving ChampionshipsThe NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships are college championship events in the USA. The event is held annually, and the NCAA hosts Swimming & Diving Championships in each of its three Divisions ....
(9) - 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
- Swimming & Diving
- Women's sports (8):
- Swimming & DivingNCAA Women's Swimming and Diving ChampionshipsNCAA Team Championships for Women's Swimming and Diving-Division I:-See also:*AIAW Intercollegiate Women's Swimming and Diving Champions*List of college swimming and diving teams-References:*...
(5) - 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 - Outdoor Track and FieldNCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field ChampionshipNCAA team champions for Women's Outdoor Track and Field-By school:-See also:*AIAW Intercollegiate Women's Outdoor Track and Field Champions*NCAA Women's Indoor Track and Field Championship*NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship...
(1) - 2006 - EquestrianVarsity EquestrianVarsity Equestrian competition is a recently added NCAA sport that offers collegiate women the chance to compete against schools around the nation...
(2) - 2008, 2011
- Swimming & Diving
Auburn has also won national championships in football in 1957
1957 Auburn Tigers football team
The 1957 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 1957 college football season. Coached by Ralph "Shug" Jordan, Auburn went 10–0 and was awarded national title AP Poll, even though they were on probation and did not participate in a bowl game. Ohio State was named the...
and 2010
2010 Auburn Tigers football team
The 2010 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 2010–2011 college football season. The Tigers, led by second year head coach Gene Chizik were members of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference and played their home games at Jordan-Hare Stadium...
.
SEC championships
Auburn has won Southeastern Conference championships in the following events:- Men's sports: (51):
- Baseball (6) - 1937, 1958, 1963, 1967, 1976, 1978
- Basketball (2) - 1960, 1999
- Cross Country (6) - 1946, 1948, 1955, 1964, 1979, 1980
- Football (7) - 1957, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2004, 2010
- Golf (3) - 1976, 1981, 2002
- Swimming & Diving (17) - 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- Tennis (2) - 1983, 1984
- Indoor Track and Field (4) - 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980
- Outdoor Track and Field (4) - 1954, 1955, 1961, 1979
- Women's sports: (20):
- Basketball (5) - 1981, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2009
- Golf (8) - 1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011
- Soccer (2) - 2002, 2011
- Swimming & Diving (5) - 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008
Teams
Football
Auburn's football team has been named national champions two times: 1957 by the AP poll and 2010 in the BCS system. Auburn was also named national college football champion by several polls in 1913, 1983, 1993, and 2004. Three Auburn players, Pat Sullivan in 1971, Bo JacksonBo Jackson
Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson is a former American baseball and football player. He was the first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports, and also won the Heisman Trophy in 1985....
in 1985, and Cam Newton
Cam Newton
Cameron Lemark Newton is a former American football safety. He played college football at Furman University, then played two seasons in the NFL, one each for the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers. He was cut from the Panthers before the 2007 season...
in 2010 have won the Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
. The Trophy's namesake, John Heisman, coached at Auburn from 1895 until 1899. Auburn is the only school that Heisman coached at (among others, Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represents the Georgia Institute of Technology in collegiate level football. While the team is officially designated as the Yellow Jackets, it is also referred to as the Ramblin' Wreck. The Yellow Jackets are a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference...
and Clemson
Clemson Tigers football
The Clemson Tigers football team is an American football team from Clemson University in South Carolina. It competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference...
) that has produced a Heisman Trophy winner. Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium
Jordan-Hare Stadium
Jordan–Hare Stadium is the playing venue for Auburn University's football team located on campus in Auburn, Alabama, USA. The stadium is named for Ralph "Shug" Jordan, the University's winningest football coach, and Cliff Hare, a member of Auburn's first football team as well as Dean of the Auburn...
has a capacity of 87,451 ranking as the tenth-largest on-campus stadium in the NCAA as of January 2011. Auburn played the first football game in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
in 1892 against the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
at Piedmont Park
Piedmont Park
Piedmont Park is a urban park in Atlanta, Georgia, located about northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. Originally the land was owned by Dr. Benjamin Walker, who used it as his out-of-town gentleman's farm and residence...
in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. The Tigers' first bowl appearance was in 1937 in the sixth Bacardi Bowl
Bacardi Bowl
Bacardi Bowl was a college football bowl game played seven times in Havana, Cuba at La Tropical Stadium. Sometimes referred to as the Rhumba Bowl or the Cigar Bowl, the game was the climaxing event of Cuba’s annual National Sports Festival. The first five occurrences matched an American college...
played in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. AU Football has won eleven conference championships (7 SEC), has had twelve undefeated seasons, and since the division of the conference in 1992, four western division championships (1997, 2000, 2004, 2010) and four trips to the SEC Championship game (1997, 2000, 2004, and 2010). Auburn plays archrival Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
each year in a game known as the Iron Bowl
Iron Bowl
The Iron Bowl is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University. The series is considered one of the best and most hard-fought rivalries in all of sports...
. The Iron bowl, no matter the rankings of the teams is always one of the biggest games of the year. It grants one team bragging rights and shown in "Roll Tide/War Eagle" the 30 for 30 documentary done by ESPN, the game means more than just bragging rights. Auburn won the most recent meeting, on November 26, 2010, by a score of 28-27. In the overall series with Alabama, Auburn trails Alabama 40-34-1, despite having won 7 of the last 10 meetings. Of the 12 SEC member universities, Auburn currently ranks 6th in the number of SEC football championships, behind Alabama [22], Tennessee [13], Georgia [12], LSU [10], and Florida [total of 8, with 1 vacated in 1984].
Auburn completed the 2004 football season with an unblemished 13–0 record winning the SEC
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
championship, their first conference title since 1989 and their first outright title since 1987. However, this achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the Tigers being left out of the BCS
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
championship game in deference to two other undefeated, higher ranked teams, USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and Oklahoma. The 2004 team was led by quarterback Jason Campbell
Jason Campbell
Jason Campbell is an American football quarterback for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft...
(Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
), running backs Carnell Williams
Carnell Williams
Carnell Lamar "Cadillac" Williams is an American football running back for the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft...
(Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
) and Ronnie Brown
Ronnie Brown
Ronnie G. Brown, Jr. is an American football running back for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League . After graduating from Cartersville High School in Georgia, Brown attended Auburn University to play college football for the Auburn Tigers...
(Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
), and cornerback Carlos Rogers
Carlos Rogers (American football player)
-Washington Redskins:Rogers was drafted by the Washington Redskins with the ninth overall pick in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft. The Redskins then acquired a second first-round pick from the Denver Broncos in exchange for Washington's third-round pick in 2005, as well as their first pick...
(Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
).
Auburn completed the 2010 football season with a perfect record of 13-0 winning the SEC
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
championship when they defeated the University of South Carolina 56-17 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta Georgia, which set an SEC Championship Game record for most points scored and largest margin of victory. The Tigers went on to defeat the Oregon Ducks
Oregon Ducks
The Oregon Ducks refers to the sports teams of the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, Oregon. The Oregon Ducks are part of the Pacific-12 Conference in the Division 1 of the NCAA. With seventeen varsity teams, the Oregon Ducks are best known for their football team and Track and Field...
22 to 19 in their first appearance in the BCS National Championship game
BCS National Championship Game
The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, is the final bowl game of the annual Bowl Championship Series and is intended by the organizers of the BCS to determine the U.S. national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision...
on January 10, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. The 2010 team was led by quarterback Cam Newton
Cam Newton
Cameron Lemark Newton is a former American football safety. He played college football at Furman University, then played two seasons in the NFL, one each for the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers. He was cut from the Panthers before the 2007 season...
, who became the Heisman trophy winner of 2010.
Swimming and diving
In the last decade under former head coach David Marsh, Auburn's swimmingSwimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
program became a virtual dynasty in the SEC and the NCAA winning five consecutive NCAA men's championships from 2003 through 2007 and women's championships in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Auburn men have won the SEC Championship 14 out of the last 15 years and also won national championships in 1997, 1999, and 2009. The Auburn men won their 13th consecutive SEC Title in 2008, while the Auburn women took home their fifth SEC Championship in the last six years. The Auburn men's 44 consecutive, five year dual meet win record came to an end on January 11, 2007 when they lost to Texas 130-113 exactly five years to the date of their last loss in 2001, also to Texas.
Auburn swimmers have represented the U.S. and several other countries in recent Olympics
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
. Auburn's most famous swimmer is Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines
Rowdy Gaines
Ambrose Gaines IV is a former American swimmer, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member, Olympic three-time gold medalist, and member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame...
, winner of three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
. Auburn's most successful female Olympic swimmer is Kirsty Coventry
Kirsty Coventry
Kirsty Leigh Coventry is a Zimbabwean swimmer and world record holder. She attended and swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, in the United States...
(swimming for her home country of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
) who won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
.
Marsh left Auburn after the 2007 season to become the Head Elite Coach and CEO of the United States Olympic Committee Center of Excellence in Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
and was succeeded by former Auburn head coach Richard Quick
Richard Quick
Richard Walter Quick was the head coach of the women's swim team at Stanford University, California, U.S. from 1988 through 2005. He has been a coach for the US Olympic team for six Olympics - 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004...
who led Stanford
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Texas to 12 NCAA titles in two decades of coaching between 1984 and 2005.
Men's basketball
The Auburn men's basketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team has enjoyed off-and-on success over the years. Its best known alumnus
Alumnus
An alumnus , according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate of a school, college, or university." An alumnus can also be a former member, employee, contributor or inmate as well as a former student. In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college,...
is Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley is a former American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's most dominating power forwards...
.
Other NBA players from Auburn are Chuck Person
Chuck Person
Chuck Connors Person is a retired American National Basketball Association player and current assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers.-High school and college:...
, Wesley Person
Wesley Person
Wesley Lavon Person is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA.Selected by the Phoenix Suns 23rd overall in the 1994 NBA Draft out of Auburn University, he played three seasons for the Suns, five for the Cleveland Cavaliers, 82 games over two seasons for the Memphis Grizzlies,...
, Chris Porter, Marquis Daniels
Marquis Daniels
Marquis Antwane Daniels is a , guard-forward who most recently was a member of the Sacramento Kings. Daniels was an undrafted guard in the 2003 NBA Draft, yet has become a regular rotation player averaging at least 17.8 minutes per game in each one of his first six seasons...
, Moochie Norris
Moochie Norris
Martyn "Moochie" Norris is an American former professional basketball player.Norris, a journeyman, played collegiately at Odessa College , at Auburn University and at the University of West Florida . He was drafted with 33rd overall pick of the 1996 NBA draft by Milwaukee Bucks...
, and Pat Burke
Pat Burke
Patrick John Burke is a former Irish professional basketball player, who last played with the Polish club Asseco Prokom Sopot...
.
Women's basketball
The Auburn women's basketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team has been consistently competitive both nationally and within the SEC. Despite playing in the same conference as perennial powerhouse Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
and other competitive programs such as LSU
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
, Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
, and Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, Auburn has won four regular season SEC championships and four SEC Tournament championships. AU has made sixteen appearances in the NCAA women's basketball tournament and only once, in the Tigers first appearance in 1982, have the Tigers lost in the first round. Auburn played in three consecutive National Championship games from 1988–1990 and won the Women's NIT
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There are two NIT events each season. The first, played in November and known as the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off , was founded in 1985...
in 2003. When Coach Joe Ciampi announced his retirement after twenty-five years at the end of the 2003–2004 season, the resulting search snared the highly experienced, former Purdue
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
and US National and Olympic team head coach, Nell Fortner
Nell Fortner
Nell Fortner is the current women's college basketball coach at Auburn. She is most well known for leading the 2000 Olympics team to a gold medal. She has received numerous awards including the 1997 National Coach of the Year, the 2000 USA Basketball Coach of the Year and the 2008 SEC Coach of the...
. Standout former Auburn players include: Ruthie Bolton
Ruthie Bolton
Alice Ruth Bolton , better known as Ruthie Bolton and also by her former married name of Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, is a former collegiate, Olympic and professional basketball player. Bolton played in the WNBA from 1997 through 2004 with the Sacramento Monarchs. She played collegiately at Auburn...
, Vickie Orr, Carolyn Jones, Chantel Tremitiere and Monique Morehouse.
Women's Golf
Auburn's Women's Golf team has risen to be extremely competitive in the NCAA in recent years. Since 1999, they hold a 854-167-13 (.826 win percentage) record. The team has been in five NCAA finals and finished second in 2002 and then third in 2005. The program has a total of eight SEC Championships (1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2011). The seven titles is third all time for Women's golf. In October 2005, Auburn was named the #3 team nationally out of 229 total teams since 1999 by GolfWeek magazine. Auburn's highest finish in the NCAA tournament was a tie for 2nd in 2002.Since 1996, the team has been headed by Coach Kim Evans, a 1981 alumna, who has turned the program into one of the most competitive in the nation. Coach Evans has helped develop All-Americans, SEC Players of the Year as well as three SEC Freshman of the Year. She has led the Tigers to eight-straight NCAA appearances. She is by far the winningest Coach in Auburn Golf History, having over 1100 wins and winning six of Auburn's seven total SEC Titles. Evans was named National Coach of the Year in 2003 and has coached 8 individual All-Americans while at Auburn.
Women's Soccer
Auburn Soccer has been one the top programs of the SEC. The team started in 1993 and after some growing pains is now a constant player in the SEC Conference championship race. Auburn won four straight SEC West division titles between 2001–2004 and a fifth in 2006. They won the Regular Season SEC title in 2002. Despite all the success, Auburn has yet to win an SEC Tournament, though they have finished Runner-Up three times.The 2006 Auburn soccer season saw the Tigers playing only five seniors and 13 freshmen who saw significant playing time. Despite the youth, Auburn went on to an 11-5-3 including a 5-3-3 mark in the SEC to retake the SEC Western division title. The Season ended on a 3-1 loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to California in Tallahassee, Florida.
The 2011 Auburn soccer team defeated Florida, 3-2 to win the SEC Tournament on 11/6/11.
Equestrian
Women's equestrian first debuted in 1996 and became the school's 21st varsityVarsity team
In the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...
sport five years later. The team has been led by Greg Williams since its debut. In 2004, the team won its first championship at the Southern Equestrian Championships, which started in 2003. In 2006, the team won its first Varsity Equestrian National Championship, capturing Auburn's first national title outside of football and swimming and diving. The team earned its first Hunt Seat national title in 2008, while the Tigers finished third in the overall standings. The team won a second national championship in 2011.
Although equestrian is not yet sanctioned by the NCAA, Auburn competes with 19 other Division I schools, including SEC
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
foes Georgia
Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams of the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference...
and South Carolina
South Carolina Gamecocks
The University of South Carolina's 19 varsity sports teams are known as the "Gamecocks". The unique moniker is held in honor of Thomas Sumter, a South Carolina war hero who was given the name "The Carolina Gamecock" during the American Revolution for his fierce fighting tactics, regardless of his...
. The NCAA classified equestrian as an emerging sport in 1998. 40 Division I and Division II schools are required for the sport to be recognized by the NCAA. Currently, there are 23 programs, and more are expected to be added each year.
Track and Field
Auburn's Women's Track and Field won the 2006 National NCAA Outdoor title convincingly by outscoring USC 57-38.50. The track title was the 4th National Championship won by Auburn in 2006. In Outdoor Track and Field, the previous highest finish for the Women was 14th in 2002 and 2003. The Auburn men have finished second in the NCAA Outdoor championships twice in 2003 and 2008. The men have earned two third place finishes in 2000 and 2007. The Auburn team was coached for 28 years by Mel RosenMel Rosen
Melvin "Mel" Rosen is an American former track coach.He was head coach of the Auburn University Tigers track team for 28 years, from 1963–91, during which time the team won four consecutive Southeastern Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships from 1977–80, and an outdoor track & field...
, for whom the Hutsell-Rosen Track
Hutsell-Rosen Track
Hutsell-Rosen Track is an outdoor track and field facility located in Auburn, Alabama on the campus of Auburn University. It is the official outdoor track and field facility for the Auburn Tigers track and field teams...
was in part named in 2006.
Tiger Walk
Before each Auburn home football game, thousands of Auburn fans line Donahue Avenue to cheer on the team as they walk from the Auburn Athletic Complex to Jordan-Hare StadiumJordan-Hare Stadium
Jordan–Hare Stadium is the playing venue for Auburn University's football team located on campus in Auburn, Alabama, USA. The stadium is named for Ralph "Shug" Jordan, the University's winningest football coach, and Cliff Hare, a member of Auburn's first football team as well as Dean of the Auburn...
. The tradition began in the 1960s when groups of kids would walk up the street to greet the team and get autographs. During the tenure of coach Doug Barfield, the coach urged fans to come out and support the team, and thousands did. Auburn is the first known school to conduct an organized procession of players into the stadium. Today the team, led by the coaches, walks down the hill and into the stadium surrounded by fans who pat them on the back and shake their hands as they walk. The largest Tiger Walk occurred on December 2, 1989, before the first ever home football game against rival Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
—the Iron Bowl
Iron Bowl
The Iron Bowl is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University. The series is considered one of the best and most hard-fought rivalries in all of sports...
. On that day, an estimated 20,000 fans packed the one block section of road leading to the stadium. According to former athletic director David Housel, Tiger Walk has become "the most copied tradition in all of college football." As it grew in popularity, the Tiger Walk has become a fixture for road games. Fans will gather at visiting stadiums and cheer the team on from the buses into the stadium.
Toomer's Corner
Toomer's Trees and the Rolling Tradition
Hanging over the corner are two massive old-growth southern live oak trees, and anytime anything good happens concerning Auburn, toilet paperToilet paper
Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...
can usually be found hanging from the trees. Also known as "rolling the corner", this tradition is thought to have originated in the 1950s to celebrate away victories; however, in recent years it has become a way to celebrate anything good that happens concerning Auburn. On January 10, 2011 when Auburn Football won the BCS National Championship game, a celebration was held at the corner which involved the traditional papering.
Toomer's Trees poisoned
On January 27, 2011, a man going by the name of Al and claiming to be from DadevilleDadeville, Alabama
Dadeville is a city in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 3,212. The city is the county seat of Tallapoosa County.Dadeville is part of the Alexander City Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, a town 30 minutes from Auburn, called into Paul Finebaum
Paul Finebaum
Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, television and radio personality and former columnist based in Birmingham, Alabama. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. Finebaum was born in Memphis, Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee, where he received a...
's sports talk radio show. "Al" admitted to poisoning the trees with a pesticide called Spike 80DF (Tebuthiuron)
Tebuthiuron
Tebuthiuron is a nonselective broad spectrum herbicide of the urea class. It is used in a number of herbicides manufactured by Dow AgroSciences, and is sold under several trade names, depending on the formulation. It is used to control weeds, woody and herbaceous plants, and sugar cane...
the weekend following the 2010 Iron Bowl
Iron Bowl
The Iron Bowl is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University. The series is considered one of the best and most hard-fought rivalries in all of sports...
, an away game the Tigers played on Friday, November 26, 2010 in Tuscaloosa; the Tigers came back from a 24-0 second-quarter deficit to win 28-27. He said he did this in retaliation for photos that he claimed to have seen in the Birmingham News that depicted Auburn fans rolling Toomer's Corner after announcement of former University of Alabama head-coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
death in 1983 as well as pictures of an Auburn #2 (number of 2010 Auburn quarterback Cam Newton
Cam Newton
Cameron Lemark Newton is a former American football safety. He played college football at Furman University, then played two seasons in the NFL, one each for the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers. He was cut from the Panthers before the 2007 season...
) Under Armour
Under Armour
Under Armour is an American sports clothing and accessories company. The company is a supplier of a wide range of sportswear and casual apparel mainly focusing on hi-tech sportswear for professional athletes...
t-shirt taped to Bryant's statue earlier in the 2010 season. He ended his call by saying, "Roll damn Tide!" An exhaustive search of newspapers found no evidence of Toomer's being rolled upon Bryant's death.
The caller's claims prompted Auburn to take soil samples. On February 16, 2011, Auburn officials announced that the 130-year-old live oak trees at Toomer's Corner had been poisoned with a large quantity of Spike 80DF, an herbicide governed by Alabama state agricultural laws and the Environmental Protection Agency; Spike 80DF is not used by Auburn University. Tests of soil samples showed the lowest levels of Spike 80DF to be 0.78ppm, which experts say is enough to be a "very lethal dose." The highest levels of concentration were measured to be 51ppm. Gary Keever, an Auburn University professor of horticulture and a member of Auburn's Tree Preservation Committee has said "[Spike 80DF] is extremely active and persistent [and] it's very likely to be in the soil for 3 to 5 years."
The school and city police both launched investigations into the matter. Finebaum later reported that Federal authorities are also involved and are worried the poison could be in the groundwater supply. Both Auburn University President Jay Gogue
Jay Gogue
-Biography:Jay Gogue was born in Waycross, Georgia. He graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in 1969, and a Master's degree in 1971. In 1973, he received a PhD in horticulture from Michigan State University....
and University of Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore
Mal Moore
Mal M. Moore is the current Director of Athletics for the University of Alabama. On November 23, 1999, he was hired to his current position after spending almost thirty years in other areas with the university...
have condemned this act.
Police traced the call to the home of Harvey Updyke Jr. of Dadeville. Updyke, a retired Texas state trooper
Texas Highway Patrol
The Texas Highway Patrol is a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety and has the responsibility for general police traffic supervision, traffic, and criminal law enforcement on the rural highways of Texas...
, was taken into custody at 1:26 am CST on February 17, 2011 and charged with one count of criminal mischief, a class C felony in Alabama. He is being held on a $50,000 bond. If convicted, Updyke faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
War Eagle
There are many stories surrounding the origins of Auburn's battle cry, "War Eagle." The most popular account involves the first Auburn football game in 1892 between Auburn and the University of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
. According to the story, in the stands that day was an old Civil War soldier with an eagle that he had found injured on a battlefield and kept as a pet. The eagle broke free and began to soar over the field, and Auburn began to march toward the Georgia end zone. The crowd began to chant "War Eagle" as the eagle soared. After Auburn won the game, the eagle crashed to the field and died, but according to the legend, his spirit lives on every time an Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry also functions as a greeting for those associated with the University. For many years, a live golden eagle
Golden Eagle
The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
has embodied the spirit of this tradition. The eagle was once housed on campus in The Eagle's Cage, but the cage was taken down and the eagle moved to a nearby raptor center.
One story centers around a response to Alabama fans after a 1894 football match. Following a colossal victory against the tigers, the Alabama fans began cheering "roll tide." Flustered, ignorant, and confused, the Auburn fans blurted the first two words that came to mind- "war" and "eagle." This nonsensical chant quickly became the laughing stock of the southeast. According to legend, the spirits of dead eagles come to life for a night of mischief every time an Auburn man or woman yells "War Eagle!" The battle cry also functions as an insult to eagle conservation activists.
Yet another legend is centered around the city of Auburn's agricultural roots. According to folk lore, before Auburn became the bustling metropolis that it is today, there was an old farmer that lived just outside the city limits. One day, after having his rabbit herds thinned by a pack of golden eagles, the farmer vowed war against those roving raptors, but it just so happened that the Auburn football team was at that time playing the Georgia Bulldogs. For years after its initial founding, the Auburn football team struggled to attract even the most mediocre of crowds. On that fateful day, the Auburn players, not being sure exactly what their team mascot was, looked across the plains and spied the farmer raving about "war on the eagles". Being strengthened by the farmer's strange ranting, the football players also began yelling "war on eagles" which eventually became shortened to "war eagle". Auburn lost that match 27-0.
Wreck Tech Pajama Parade
The Wreck Tech Pajama Parade originated in 1896, when a group of mischievous Auburn ROTC cadets, determined to show up the better-known engineers from Georgia TechGeorgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, sneaked out of their dorms the night before the football game between Auburn and Tech and greased the railroad tracks. According to the story, the train carrying the Georgia Tech team slid through town and didn't stop until it was halfway to the neighboring town of Loachapoka, Alabama
Loachapoka, Alabama
Loachapoka is a town in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is located seven miles west of Auburn in west-central Lee County. The population was 165 as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Auburn Metropolitan Area....
, The Georgia Tech team was forced to walk the five miles back to Auburn and, not surprisingly, were rather weary at the end of their journey. This likely contributed to their 45–0 loss. While the railroad long ago ceased to be the way teams traveled to Auburn and students never greased the tracks again, the tradition continues in the form of a parade through downtown Auburn. Students parade through the streets in their pajamas and organizations build floats. This tradition was renewed in 2005 with Georgia Tech returning to Auburn's schedule after nearly two decades of absence.
Rivals
Auburn has two primary rivals, the University of AlabamaUniversity of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
and the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
. The stretch of games against these two schools is known traditionally as Amen Corner
Amen Corner
Amen Corner may refer to:*Amen Corner , 1960s British pop group*Amen Corner , 1983 musical*Amen Corner , novel by Rick Shefchik*The Amen Corner, 1954 play by James Baldwin...
. Alabama is the most heated rival, and this rivalry is considered to be one of the most intense in the country. Competitions between the schools are known as the Iron Bowl
Iron Bowl
The Iron Bowl is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University. The series is considered one of the best and most hard-fought rivalries in all of sports...
. Alabama holds the all-time edge with a record of 40 wins, 34 losses and 1 tie.
Georgia
Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams of the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference...
and Auburn compete in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry
Deep South's Oldest Rivalry
The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry is an American college football rivalry game played by the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University and the Georgia Bulldogs football team of the University of Georgia...
, dating back to 1892. The game was played in Piedmont Park
Piedmont Park
Piedmont Park is a urban park in Atlanta, Georgia, located about northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. Originally the land was owned by Dr. Benjamin Walker, who used it as his out-of-town gentleman's farm and residence...
in Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. The series is extremely close, with Auburn holding a 54-52-8 record. It is one of the longest running and most played series in the NCAA.
Auburn also has a very competitive football rivalry with the LSU Tigers
LSU Tigers
The LSU Tigers are the athletic teams of Louisiana State University. They participate in the NCAA's Division I, in the Southeastern Conference. It fields teams in 14 varsity sports . Its official team nickname is the Fighting Tigers and the school mascot is Mike the Tiger...
, commonly referred to as the Tiger Bowl. The two share more than just a nickname, as they have both enjoyed success in the SEC's Western Division. Auburn or LSU has won at least a share of the SEC Western Division championship for eight of the last eleven years, and appeared in the SEC Championship game in seven of those years. Auburn won it outright in 2000, 2004, and 2010, LSU won it outright in 2007, and LSU won tiebreakers against Auburn in 2001 and 2005, and against Ole Miss in 2003. The only four times Auburn or LSU did not go to Atlanta in the last eleven years was 2002 when Arkansas won the three-way tie breaker with the two Tiger teams, in 2006 when Arkansas made it to Atlanta with a win over Auburn, and 2008 and 2009 when Alabama won the division.
Some of Auburn's former rivals included the Florida Gators
Florida Gators
The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams...
, the Tennessee Volunteers
Tennessee Volunteers
The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the National Collegiate Athletic Association college sports teams at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mike Hamilton is the most recent Men's Athletic Director, but resigned on June 7, 2011, and Joan Cronan is the current Women's...
and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
The Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that play for the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wreck, Engineers, Blacksmiths, and Golden Tornado. There are 8 men's and 7 women's teams that...
, each of which was mitigated (or, in the case of Georgia Tech, ended) with the SEC expansion and division restructuring, as well as past long series with the Clemson Tigers
Clemson Tigers
The Clemson Tigers are any team that represents Clemson University as a member of the NCAA's Division I or in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference....
and the Florida State Seminoles
Florida State Seminoles
The Florida State Seminoles are the men's and women's sports teams of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Florida State participates in the NCAA's Division I . FSU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1991, and competes in the Atlantic Division in any sports split into a...
.
While basketball is a lesser sport at Auburn, (compared to football) the Iron Bowl of Basketball
Iron Bowl of Basketball
The Iron Bowl of Basketball is a basketball rivalry game between the Auburn University Tigers and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. Both teams play in the shadow of their prestigious football programs and though both teams have been far less successful in basketball than their football...
is fierce as well and is most well known for the halftime ceremony in which the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Award is awarded to the school that won the football matchup earlier that academic year.
Auburn's swimming and diving team has a fierce rivalry with Texas, as the two have combined for 17 NCAA National Titles since 1981 (9 for Texas, 8 for Auburn) and between 1999 and 2007 won every national title awarded. The two regularly face off in a meet during the regular season, Auburn's men own an 12-9 record over the Longhorns. The women just recently began an annual series, with the Tigers winning the series so far 3-1. Texas was the only team to beat the Auburn men between 2001 and 2007.